


A Proper Burial

by scapeartist



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6816670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scapeartist/pseuds/scapeartist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian and Emma discuss final arrangements after the fact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Proper Burial

**Author's Note:**

> This is a filler piece for 5x21 and fixes something that had been bothering me for a while.

The rain fell, landing softly in the grass and pattering against the many headstones Emma and Killian passed as the made their way out of the cemetery. They leaned into each other, holding hands, as Emma wrapped her other arm around his, clinging to him. The rain felt good—cleansing—but not half as good as the warmth radiating from Emma. He was still not over the gift he’d been given and he soaked in everything around him, grateful to be there at all. As they got closer to one relatively fresh grave, the sound of the rain changed. **  
**

_Plink… Plonk… Plink… Plink…_

Killian stopped in his tracks and looked around.

Breaking away from Emma, he leaned down and picked up the source of the sound.

“Why is there a flask—”

“Oh, I… that’s your—”

Killian met Emma’s eyes, still red from the day’s sorrow and joy, and raised his eyebrows in question.

“My _grave_?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, her mouth trembling even as she tried to smile.

Killian looked at the modest headstone with his name carved into it, the flowers before it, and shivered at the sight of it all.

“It’s… very… nice, love,” he said.

“But…?”

“Nothing,” he answered shaking his head with a small frown. Water ran down the back of his neck and he adjusted his jacket to try to keep more from rolling between his shoulder blades.

“You don’t like it?” Emma asked.

Shaking his head again, Killian tucked the flask into his back pocket. “No, it’s not that. It’s lovely.”

“I didn’t really have time for a funeral. I wasn’t expecting to even have one. But it was taking too long to get back…and…”

Killian pulled Emma into his arms and kissed her forehead. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and took a shuddering breath. “It’s alright, Emma. Truly.”

“You don’t like it.”

Sighing, Killian pushed back to look into Emma’s eyes. He thought he would never see them again, and here he was, bringing back a sorrow he didn’t want her to ever have to revisit.

“It’s unexpected is all, Emma. Sailors aren’t usually put into the ground.”

He smiled as she searched his face, his words finally sinking in.

“Oh,” she said and hugged him, fiercely. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think…”

“And you shouldn’t have had to, love.”

She sighed against his chest, and he kissed the top of her head again, trying to convey his regret that she was ever in a position to have to deal with his remains at all.

“Promise me though, Swan, that many many hundreds of years from now, when we are done adventuring, and I do finally meet my end, that you will bury me at sea. A proper burial for a sailor and pirate such as meself.”

Emma smiled sadly, running her fingertips over his cheek and down his jaw. “I don’t want to think about that now. I just got you back.”

“Aye, and I just got _you_ back, too. Better to get this out of the way now than never at all. It’s important to me and you should know.”

“What if I want to keep you close? Where I can visit you?”

Killian reached up and twined his hook around her ponytail. “Emma Swan, you will always have my heart and soul. You won’t need to visit me. I’ll be with you no matter what. You know that as well as I.”

“Promise though?”

“Promise me first.”

Emma sighed. “Fine, I will send you to be fish food.”

“The most sought-after fish food in all the realms,” he said, wanting nothing more than to make her smile even if it was fleeting. “And, I,” he continued in a much more serious tone, “promise to never leave you again.”

Tears slipped down Emma’s cheeks as she nodded, and Killian wiped them away with his thumb, banishing them to the rain-soaked ground.

“Seems we have an accord,” he said leaning in to seal the deal with a kiss.

“Good,” Emma said against his lips. “Let’s get out of here.”

They broke apart and resumed their walk away from his grave.

“Emma, is there any rum in that flask?”

She snorted and looked up at him. “I’m not completely thoughtless. Of course there is.”

“That’s my lass.”


End file.
